Tuesday, July 30, 2013

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs

150+ local government "Summit" attendee rock-stars can't be wrong!!!!

What an exciting CPBB 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices" Annual Conference! I
know we are still riding high from the creative energy and innovative
concepts discussed during the two day "Summit." We hope you're feeling
the "local government high" and take this energy home and apply it in
your organization! Thanks to all conference attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, partners
and friends!

Beyond the "high", we also left the "Summit" full of innovative
"Leading Practice" inspiration and we're hungry for more! To satisfy your infectious cravings, the CPBB has revisited each conference session on this blog. The intent is to recap the energetic session presentation(s) and
reinforce the innovative "leading practice" concepts discussed at the
"Summit!"

As the final post in this blog series, we will review the electric Day 2 afternoon conference sessions featuring pioneering local government experts from across the country who have successfully implemented Leading Practices. ENJOY!

Douglas County, Nevada has implemented a game-changing approach to citizen
engagement. In 2012, the County embarked on the Priority Based Budgetingprocess with one of the primary objectives being to bring their community into
an ownership position with respect to decision making. What unfolded in their
groundbreaking use of an online tool to engage citizens sets the bar at a whole
new level in participatory budgeting. Not only that, but the County's bond rating
was affirmed as a result of their work.

Stephen Mokohrosky, Douglas County, NV Case Study

Citizen engagement in the budget process has been increasingly of interest
in local government budgeting. The logic follows that the more citizens can
authentically contribute and influence the decisions being made by their
government, the more ownership they might take in their community. Trust
increases with transparency. Compassion comes with trust. The benefits
are undeniable.

Still, organizations ask us, "but what about the risks inherent in citizen
engagement? What is the right role for citizens?" We're asked, "to what degree
is it appropriate, safe, meaningful, realistic and effective to have citizens
participate in decision making?" In our work, we continue to strive for answers to these questions—they are the right questions. With the potential for such
great outcomes, if we can answer those questions correctly, and involve citizens
in more meaningful and influential ways, our communities can achieve everything
they hope for!

Douglas County, Nevada has put citizens in the driver's seat of their Priority Based Budgetingprocess. Special thanks to Peak
Democracy—our partners in the development of the "County Budget Challenge."

The City of Wheat Ridge, Colorado is the first community to implement the entire
approach to Achieving Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting—incorporating the Fiscal Health approach to communicating their financial forecast with the PBB process for resource allocation. Hear from
City leaders how the Fiscal Health model changed the conversation with their
elected officials, and how Priority Based Budgeting is being used to address
the budget.

"PBB is truly more than just a way to address your 'budget woes.' The great
thing about Priority Based Budgeting is it can help support the type of
culture an organization desires by not simply viewing this process as a
budget tool when it is really so much more. PBB is helping us further our
culture in areas where we know we have room for improvement. PBB is
more than being about the state of your budget, it is about the state
of your organization..."

initiative) establishes one of the greatest advancements in
the use of the process to guide policy direction. The organization's response to
Council’s policy direction provides one of the most comprehensive evaluations
of city services across the entire organization.

Many organizations have approached us with a strong desire to bring their
elected officials into a constructive and transparent discussion about the
budget—Cincinnati has set the bar high in this respect. In the most direct way
possible, the City used Priority Based Budgeting to guide policy-oriented
discussions. One of the benefits of the process is that it creates specific roles
for elected officials to participate and succeed. When elected officials can focus
on key policy questions that impact resource allocation, when they’re provided
input and transparency in the way their policy questions are answered, and
when they can make decisions based on policy impacts, then they’ve played a successful role in budgeting.

Fort Collins is one of the world’s leading experts in Results
Based Budgeting—a pioneer in the implementation of
“Budgeting for Outcomes” (BFO), having most recently
integrated “Priority Based Budgeting” as a new layer to support decision making. Hear from the City as they
describe what an unwavering commitment to “Results”
has meant for their culture and their community.

Walnut Creek is one of the earliest implementers of Priority
Based Budgeting, having incorporated the process into
their culture first in FY 2009–10. Last year, the City spoke
about the "sustainability" of the process through changes
in leadership – turnover at both the Council and manager
levels. This year, come hear how the City has reinvented
their budget book for citizens, creating a one-of-a-kind,
magazine-style Budget Story to reach their citizens in an entirely new way. Presenting the budget as a story is
a game-changing leap in creating transparency in local
government budgeting.
See the full City of Walnut Creek, CA slide presentation here.

Lorie Tinfow

Assistant City ManagerCity of Walnut Creek,
California

City of Lakeland, Florida

Lakeland, Florida was the first community to implement
Priority Based Budgeting after the process was described
in the 2008 edition of ICMA’s PM Magazine. Over the past
5-years, the City has successfully evolved the process,
incorporating Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to ensure
that performance measures support the evaluation of
services in the way they do business.

The City of Tualatin, Oregon is among the very first to
adopt the Fiscal Health

Diagnostic Tool, putting it to use in
2009 and continuing to this day. Fiscal Health has become
a means of communication—a translator of financial
information for decision makers. In fact, since 2009, the
City has been so diligent about using the Diagnostic Tool
to maintain their Fiscal Health, we joke that they have
prevented the need to ever use Priority Based Budgeting!
Come see how the City uses Fiscal Health to communicate
with elected officials, and as a data-visualization tool that depicts real-time impacts of various scenarios with a
financial impact.

Boone County, Illinois provides a stunning illustration of how the principles of Fiscal Health can be used to
strengthen a community's bond rating—a "Holy Grail" of
sorts, in terms of using the principles in the most effective
way possible!

In “Excelling in Times of Fiscal Distress,” an article Bob
O'Neill wrote for Governing Magazine, about the time that Boone County was adopting Fiscal Health, he wrote
“Most of us can articulate the early-warning signs that
preceded the current economic downturn: Global forces that
dramatically changed the local, state, and federal playing
fields. Skyrocketing fuel costs. A failing housing market...
property tax limitations. Yet, many of us failed to correctly
interpret these early-warning signs in relation to their impact
on our government organizations.”

Interpretation is the key! That is what Boone County has
excelled in—both with their elected officials, and with the
bond rating agencies.

Day 2 of the "Summit" was an enormous success highlighting three innovative and successful local government case studies in addition to hearing from local government expert practitioners and their experiences implementing "Leading Practices". Thanks to all who experienced this creative and energizing "Summit!" We look forward to seeing you all at next year's 3rd Annual CPBB Conference.

Finally, in an effort to ensure everybody has access to the conference session presentation slides, we've set up two additional folders within the ICMA Knowledge Network Center for Management Strategies Group and DropBox
to help those who don't have access to Google Docs. Both of these sites
will require people to sign-in (if they already have an account), or
create an account and then sign-in (if they don't already have an
account).

Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian are pleased to share with you that the Center for Priority Based Budgeting officially opened its office on September 1, 2010, with its main objective being to “lead communities to Fiscal Health and Wellness.”

As most of you know, it was our desire from the very beginning of our partnership to create a not-for-profit environment that could support and sustain our work in not only providing advisory services to local governments across the country but also to find ways to continue our research efforts to better understand the fiscal conditions that are impacting local governments from coast to coast. Utilizing a business development technique found in the private sector, the Center was being “incubated” by another successful not-for-profit organization that also serves local governments. Graduating from the incubator in 2013, CPBB is now working with over 60 organizations who have implemented or are currently implementing the processes and tools of Fiscal Health and Priority Based Budgeting.

As before, we are striving to bring the principles of Fiscal Health and Wellness to all communities by teaching, coaching and guiding them in the development and implementation of our unique, creative and proven tools and techniques. We continue to improve upon our “Fiscal Health Diagnostic Tool”, which provides a quick assessment of any organization’s fiscal health status. We also continue to develop our “Resource Allocation Tool” which provides not only a mechanism to set target budgets based on our Priority Based Budgeting approach, but also serves as a way to depict how well any organization is aligning its resources with the programs and services that the community values. Our work has expanded to now include some interesting and successful citizen engagement opportunities with the communities we are partnering with in this work.

We have included our contact information below and hope that we can continue to reach out to those of you we have worked with in the past to further our research efforts as we continually strive to enhance the Priority Based Budgeting process as well as with the concepts of Fiscal Health and Wellness. We also hope to continue the conversation with those of you who have been following our work and share with you the stories of accomplishment and success from the organizations that have implemented Priority Based Budgeting. Please drop us a line anytime – we’re always glad to hear from you. In the meantime, please update your contact information and when you have the chance, check out our blog site to find out what we’ve been doing since our last conversation with you.